


choke

by alwaystiredneversleep



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Ending, Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Hurt Lance (Voltron), If You Squint - Freeform, Injured Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Dies, Lance (Voltron) Needs a Hug, Lance (Voltron) Speaks Spanish, Sad, Sad Ending, Self Prompt, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tortured Lance (Voltron), and its not a focus, i almost cried while writing this, in both that it is sad and i suck at writing endings, keith needs to give lance a hug, klance, very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:07:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24763582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaystiredneversleep/pseuds/alwaystiredneversleep
Summary: “If you think torturing me will work, you’re a dumbass. I wouldn’t tell you anything about them, ever.” Lance glared at Q, looking straight into his eyes and not flinching.“We’ll see, paladin. We’ll see.”Lance and Keith go down to an unfamiliar planet to explore and find themselves in trouble when a hostile alien kidnaps them to give them to the Galra. One even bigger problem: the alien wants information, and Lance isn't an essential part of their deal with the Galra.link to my discord server for all my voltron fics: https://discord.gg/cZgeYKj
Relationships: Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron) & Original Alien Character(s), Keith (Voltron) & Original Alien Character(s), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance (Voltron) & Original Character(s), if you squint
Comments: 20
Kudos: 198





	choke

**Author's Note:**

> HI! I came up with this at like 3 am and I was tired throughout the entire time I watched this, so forgive me for any obvious mistakes. Constructive criticism is welcome, and kind comments and kudos make me very happy and give me motivation. Please don't read and run, thank you.
> 
> Please enjoy!!

Keith woke to a blinding pain in his temple, eyes scrunched tightly shut as he groaned. Slowly, he eased his eyes open, letting them adjust to the dim green lighting of the room he was in. He was obviously in some kind of cell, although he wasn’t sure what kind or where, but he knew the only bindings were tight around his ankles, hands left open.

At first glance, the room appeared to be an empty, smooth grey space, the only light coming from softly glowing purple strips lying in the seams of the wall. 

Keith listened quietly as he heard a soft whisper of fabric, eyes roving around for where it was originating from. His gaze caught on a slumped figure in the corner, curled up in a tight ball. 

The skinny frame of the other person was familiar, and Keith let out a tiny curse when he recognized who it was. “Shit, Lance!” His head ached as he dragged himself using his arms to make it over to Lance. The smaller boy gave no response, and Keith pursed his lips.

Keith pulled himself into a sitting position next to Lance’s bent form. Lance still gave no sign of recognition, even when Keith poked him and muttered his name. Eventually, Keith gave up, recognizing that Lance would not wake up from whatever he could do. 

So Keith waited. He sat in silence, trying to think through the crippling pain in his head and remember what had happened. Firstly, however, he gave himself a check over. None of his limbs seemed to be broken or sprained, although his legs were cramped from being tied together in the same position for a long time. He gently touched one hand to the spot of pain on his head, feeling a hard bump but no blood. 

He didn’t think he had a concussion, not a bad one at least. No ringing in his ears, no lack of coordination, he wasn’t dizzy, and he didn’t feel nauseous. 

What had happened came back quickly, although it was still fragmented, which could be a very bad sign. He and Lance had been exploring a forest at a seemingly unpopulated planet. 

Lance had been jittery the entire time, extremely nervous, and very jumpy. He constantly looked like he was prepared to hightail it back to his Lion, which made Keith annoyed, even when Lance had tried to argue that he was being completely reasonable.

They had come across a crude settlement that seemed abandoned, but in the middle of exploring, Lance had cried out and collapsed to the ground, a tiny needle sticking out from his neck. Keith had swirled in a circle, looking around for who had done it, when something had popped up in front of him and hit him over the head with some heavy object - likely the end of a blaster or the butt of a sword.

Keith gave a dry chuckle. Lance had been right, of course, because he always had to be right in the absolute shittiest situations. The chuckle immediately faded as Lance gave another whimper, eyes sliding open. Lance didn’t look hurt, but Keith didn’t know if there was something he wasn’t seeing, something he couldn’t see.

“Lance? Buddy? You alright?”

“Keith?” Lance’s voice was weak and slurred, but he didn’t sound like he was in any real pain. 

“Yep, I’m here. You doing okay?” Keith put a hand on Lance’s shoulder, helping the skinny boy into a sitting position. Lance wiped his mouth with one torn sleeve, shuddering slightly as his back touched the cold metal of the dark grey wall behind him. 

“Fine. Head hurts a bit. What happened? Where are we?”

Keith bit his lip and sighed. “I don’t know, I just woke up a couple of min-” 

A door appeared in the side of one of the walls and slammed open, and a tall figure stepped through. Shining muddy teal skin stretched over what Keith presumed to be bones, and the thing had 4 long arms that stretched down to the second bend in his legs. He wore wrappings of white cloth around his claw-like fingers, and around his 3 hooved feet. He had 4 eyes, two on his lower cheeks below where humans would have their eyes, and two on little antennae that stretched above his head. He had no mouth, and his nostrils were tiny slits in his face. He had no real nose. 

“You all are awake.” The creature spoke softly, nothing opening or closing to show how he had spoken. 

“Who are you? What do you want from us? What’s going on?” Lance asked his questions in rapid-fire before Keith could speak. 

“I am -” the creature said something Keith couldn’t even hope to pronounce, but it sounded something like the letter Q repeated and twisted, so decided to call the creature Q. “ - and I wish to turn the paladin of the Black Lion into the Galra. They will stop excluding my planet from their circle of protection. I meant to just get the Black paladin, but now I have Red, too! I’m not to turn in Black hurt, but they don’t even want Red. Imagine being able to turn in information about team Voltron, a dead paladin, and the paladin the Galra so desire! They’ll have to let me in, they’ll have to reward me in some way!”

Keith glared. “And how would you get the information?” he already had a pretty solid idea, but he didn’t want it to be true. He wouldn’t let it be true, he wouldn’t let this creep hurt Lance.

“I have my methods.” Q stepped closer, voice gravelly but quiet. He sounded like he was smirking, but he had no mouth, so Keith couldn’t really tell. 

“If you think torturing me will work, you’re a dumbass. I wouldn’t tell you anything about them, ever.” Lance glared at Q, looking straight into his eyes and not flinching. A curl of admiration twisted around in his stomach, but he knew it wasn’t the time. 

“We’ll see, paladin. We’ll see.”

\--

“Come on, Allura, it’s been almost 6 hours. They’re not responding to their comms, just let us go down to check the site they’re working at!” Pidge put their hands on their hips, glaring at the frowning princess.

“Fine. You and Hunk may take one of the lions and see if Keith and Lance require help or are just being slow. Please be careful, especially if Keith and Lance are not there or seem to be in any kind of danger.” Allura spoke with an air of resignation, like she didn’t believe there was reason to check on the boys. It pissed Pidge off, but they had gotten the okay, so they went to go find Hunk.

He was, as expected, standing in the kitchen and stress-baking. He had started after the 4th hour, although Pidge hadn’t been worried enough to try and debate with Allura quite yet. 

“Hey, Pidge, what’s going on? Are they back?” Pidge shook their head, and Hunk sighed, turning his focus back to the dish he was making.

“But! But, we’re going down there to check on them. We’ll make sure they’re okay. They’re going to be okay.” Pidge patted Hunk’s back, and Hunk smiled at them. 

“Right, we’ve got this. Let’s go.”

\--

Keith hated the screaming. It was hard to listen to, but all he could do was watch as Lance, strapped down to a table with fingers spread out on the hand rests, screamed his pain. Lance’s hands were bleeding horribly at this point, and several of his fingers lie limp from where they had been broken mercilessly.

Q had dragged Lance in here first, taking him from the room and leaving Keith to wonder what was happening. The door disappeared again, but this time Keith knew where it was and stared at that spot, waiting. It had to be an hour before Q stalked back in and dragged Keith behind him. The room was empty save a huge glass panel that showed a room on the other side that was entirely barren. 

Lance had already been strapped to the table when Keith came in, struggling hard and glaring at the ceiling. He took to glaring at Q as soon as the two others walked back in.  
Q had started with simple torture, stuff you saw in movies. Pulling off Lance’s finger and toenails, choking him until a second before he passed out, and some strange version of something that looked somewhat like waterboarding. Lance had panicked the most at that one, writhing against his restraints as the water (?) spilled over his face and cut off his breathing. 

Lance had been near-silent at first, refusing to give any kind of leverage or win to the tall spindly figure that stood above him. He’d stayed silent save an occasional quip when Q had attempted to intimidate him. The only place his fear and pain had shown was on his face when his lips twisted or he bit down on the inside of his cheek. 

Keith felt a sense of twisted pride at the fact that Lance had managed to fight back for so long. He wasn’t sure how long it had been, but it had to have been at least a few hours. Keith wondered how long it would take for the other paladins to realize that they were actually in trouble, actually needed help.

Lance hadn’t screamed once until the waterboarding. Keith figured drowning was a big problem for Lance, who was known for being good at swimming and generally moving around in the water. The water was his home, and Q was violating it. Keith wanted to rip through his restraints, wanted to scream and shout and make Q hurt as much as he was hurting Lance. 

Keith had been trying to figure out how to wriggle out of the heavy metal handcuffs that were stuck around his wrist and melded to the wall, but he couldn’t move anything more than his fingers, and there was nothing he could grasp but the back edge of his pants, which was no help. 

Q was moving on from Lance’s hands now, towards his feet, which were pinned uncomfortably and flattened partly. The nails of Q’s hands traced slowly over Lance’s foot, drawing blood from sickening thin cuts. Lance shuddered but he didn’t scream, only let out a pathetic whimper that Q chuckled at.

“You can make it stop, Red. Just tell me you’re ready to give up the information I ask for.” Q said softly, promising Lance salvation that Keith was sure Lance would’ve picked by now. He was honestly shocked that Lance hadn’t given up any information, and also feeling extremely guilty that he thought Lance would.

Lance shook his head near imperceptibly, and Q sighed. “Bad choice, paladin.” He stabbed one of his claws into the sensitive flesh from which he had ripped off Lance’s toenail.  
Lance let out a harsh yelp and strained against his restraints, settling back down against the table with a soft huff. 

“Th-that all you g-got?” his words were confident, but his voice wavered and he was clearly in pain. Keith knew why he was putting up a brave front, but he wanted to tell Lance to stop provoking him. It’d just get Lance hurt more than he already was, and Keith didn’t know how he would take watching this much more. Lance could be hurt irreversibly before they managed to get out of here.

Q caressed one of Lance’s smaller toes, forcing a pained giggle from Lance’s mouth. In a quick movement that Keith’s eyes barely registered, Q cleanly broke Lance’s toe, earning a soft shriek that was quickly swallowed back. 

Keith wanted to tell Lance that it was okay to scream, he understood, it would be alright. He heard Q doing the opposite, murmuring how Lance was being weak by making noise, how anyone else wouldn’t be this loud or this dramatic over a couple of stupid bones being broken. Lance’s self-deprecating and pain-drunk mind accepted this as a truth, and Keith saw the tears that were no longer just from pain glistening as they slid down Lance’s cheeks and over the soft blush of shame that had spread. 

Keith thrashed against his bonds as Q snapped another toe, trying to get to Lance, to stop the gangly alien who thought he could just attempt to break one of Keith’s best friends. Lance didn’t deserve this - any of this. Keith let out a garbled yell through the cloth stuck in his mouth. Q spared Keith a quick look before rolling his lower eyes and turning back to Lance. 

“Come on, Red. This is your last chance for a long time.” Q crossed one pair of his arms, looking somewhat merciful. Keith didn’t know if he wanted Lance to say yes or no. 

“No, I w-won’t. Never.” Q gave a deep sigh and carded his fingers through Lance’s hair, making the skinny boy shudder. He unshackled Lance’s hands slowly, gently rubbing his thumb (?) over Lance’s palm. Q forced Lance to sit up and placed Lance’s arms behind his back, then placed the metal back over his hands. 

“Stand up as soon as I unlock your feet. Attempt to fight back or hurt me and I will not hesitate to shoot Black. The Galra don’t want him back harmed, but as long as it’s not fatal, I see no problem with shooting him. Nod to show that you understand.” 

Q waited for Lance’s reluctant nod before stroking his chin tenderly and uncuffing Lance’s feet. Lance felt around for the edge of the table with his feet, wincing as his broken toes came into contact with the cold metal again. 

Slowly, Lance lowered his feet to the floor and stood, giving a near-suppressed whimper at the heavy pressure on his broken toes. Keith saw him bite his lip hard to keep from making any truly audible noise, and Keith’s heart broke that Lance believed Q’s words about being weak. 

“Stand on the balls of your feet.” Lance did as the alien asked, tears darkening the fabric around his eyes. “Now squat so that your thighs are parallel to the ground.” Lance did as he said again, groaning in pain as he wobbled. “Good boy. You’re going to sit like that until you tell me something or you fall. Fall and I will kill you.”

Keith recognized what this situation was, and he thrashed again, as hard as he could against the tight restraints. This was called a stress position, and it was bad. Some people used them in workouts, but it was also a common torture method. Lance sitting in a position like the one he was in for too long would be extremely painful soon and eventually would cause muscle failure. Lance wouldn’t be able to hold this for long, especially not with broken toes.

Q approached Keith, who flailed around still. Q waited for a few minutes, letting Keith watch as tears escaped the blindfold and rolled down Lance’s red cheeks before a stinging pain smacked Keith upon the head and he fell unconscious. 

\--

Hunk had started to panic as soon as they got to the site and didn’t find Lance and Keith. Pidge had kept it together a bit longer, searching around the small area the boys were supposed to be searching, but eventually they began to panic as well. “Fuck, we left them alone for so long! We didn’t even try to send a drone or something simple, we could have done that!” Pidge was babbling, ranting as they worked themself up into a bigger panic.

Allura’s voice sounding through the comms grounded the two. “Paladins, report. Have you found Lance and Keith?”

“No, Allura, they’re not anywhere here. We can’t find them. There’s no evidence that they even made it here before they disappeared or got lost or kidnapped or something we didn’t help them with!” 

“Pidge, Hunk, please calm yourselves. I understand we made a mistake, but in order to find the missing paladins, we need to stay calm and search. Please give the area a thorough run down to see if you have missed any kind of clue in your momentary panic.” Allura sounded calm, but back on the Castle, she was cursing herself quietly, knowing she had messed up.

Hunk and Pidge threw themselves into the task, combing every inch of the area. At first, there didn’t seem to be anything, but Hunk noticed a trampled bush on the edge of the clearing. Someone had been here recently, and it wasn’t a paladin’s heavy boot.

There weren’t many, but dotted carelessly across a direct path were crushed bushes and other plants. Whoever was walking through was clearly trying to avoid hurting any of the plants, or leaving a trail, but they weren’t careful enough. “Allura, we found something.”

Hunk explained as Pidge gave a couple of last rounds, and at Allura’s approval, the two paladins followed the trail deeper into the woods.

\--

Keith’s head was pounding worse than before, but he wouldn’t let himself pass out. He was notably sure he had a concussion now because he was extremely tired and had the worst headache which was accompanied by a harsh ringing in his ears.

Not so harsh, however, that he couldn’t hear Lance’s deep cries as he wobbled on the balls of his feet, barely staying upright. His legs were shaking terribly and he had been sobbing for a long time. The blindfold was long soaked and his cheeks were bright red from humiliation and exertion. 

The overprotective feeling was still curled tight in Keith’s chest as he watched Lance struggle. Neither of the boys had any doubt Q would make true on his promise and kill Lance if he fell, and neither had any way they could stop it. Lance would fall soon and all three of them knew it.

Keith was watching from a chair inside the room he had seen through the glass, tied to the chair that was made from heavy metal and had been here when he had woken up, even though it wasn’t here when he had looked before. He knew it had gotten here sometime between Q knocking him out and him waking up, but he didn’t know how long that had been.

The only light sources in either room were harsh fluorescent lights that were very different from the soft green of their cell. The doors disappeared and appeared in some way that only Q seemed to be able to control, and he hadn’t seen it happen ever. 

Inside of the cell, Lance let out another choked sob, beyond the point of trying to keep quiet. Tears were pouring down his cheeks and Keith recognized that he was almost at his breaking point. His lips were moving quickly, muttering something that Keith couldn’t hear or read. 

Keith waited and watched, trying to think of something that could solve this situation. Lance finally sobbed a word, and Q perked up. “Lo… Lo siento, por favor,”  
Q’s eyes narrowed and he pulled the gag from Keith’s mouth. “What is he saying? What does it mean?”

Keith glared at Q, keeping his mouth shut. Q seized Keith’s chin in a bruising grip, tilting Keith’s head up and glaring into his eyes. “I’ll kill him before he can fall, Black. For the sake of your friend, answer the question.” 

Heart breaking, Keith muttered “He’s apologizing. He said he was sorry, and he said please.”

“Please what? What language is this?” Q was definitely angry at not knowing what it meant, and he held Keith’s chin tighter, claws drawing beads of blood from his skin. 

“It’s Spanish, Lance’s first language. And he didn’t say anything after please, that was it.” Keith attempted to maneuver his jaw away and bite his hand or move away from the sharp claws that slowly retracted, but Q growled and clasped him tighter once more. 

Q’s voice returned to the purr it was in their first conversation. “He’ll be gone soon, you know. You could give information as well. You could make it stop.”

Keith’s breath froze in his chest. Lance was going to die, and he could stop it. 

He could stop this. 

His logical side warred with his emotions. Q or the Galra would kill Lance either way and as much as he hated to admit it, Lance standing there was buying him the time he wouldn’t get if there was no point to the torture. The only way out of this for Lance was death unless he managed to stay standing long enough for the other paladins to find them. He had to stay up.

As if Keith’s thinking the words had triggered something, there came a particularly loud cry and a loud thump echoed through the room. Keith’s mind went blank at the image of Lance in the cell, face smashed to the ground and nose bleeding as his legs gave out under him.

“Oh, well, too late.” Q gave a loud chuckle and stretched both sets of his arms before opening the door and stalking out of the room.

\--

After being hit over the head three times, Keith felt like passing out right after waking up, and he had thrown up upon opening his eyes. His head spun, his ears rang, and his mouth tasted like vomit, but he had to find Lance. He had to know if Lance was okay.

Keith slowly pulled his eyes open again, eyes searching the room for Lance’s slumped figure. He recognized it as what seemed to be their old cell, the lights and the shape of the room familiar. He didn’t see anything at first, eyes not used to the dark lighting. A harsh sob sounded from one corner, and he pinpointed it immediately, spotting Lance facing the wall. He was lying on his side, head turned away from Keith, and his legs were shuddering hard. His shirt was off for some reason, and grime and blood (from Q’s claws? Keith wasn’t sure) was clear on his back, the muscles in his back tense underneath it. 

“Lance!” Keith yelped, sitting up even as his head screamed at him. He cursed softly, then giggled hysterically at how similar this situation was to when they had first woken up here. 

His legs were free this time, and he quickly crawled towards the Lance, who gave a wet cough and spat something up. Panic seeped slowly into Keith’s mind, and he crawled faster, reaching Lance quickly.

“Lance? Lance, please tell me you’re okay. Are you alright?” Keith sat beside Lance, still unable to see his front, and Lance gave another sob.

“K-Keith?” Unlike the last time this had happened, Lance sounded like he was in agony, and Keith had a feeling it wasn’t from the broken fingers and toes.

“Yeah, it’s me. Can you turn over, Lance? Do you need help?” Keith managed to keep his voice steady, but his hand shook as he rested it on Lance’s shoulder.

“I -” Lance swallowed hard. “Help, please.”

“Okay, bud. I got you.” Keith adopted the best ‘leader’ voice he could, trying to put his emotions away as best he could so that he could help Lance. Unsure how to help, he just gently pulled on Lance’s shoulder, flipping the skinny boy over and halfway into Keith’s lap.

Keith breathed in sharply, and tears he didn’t know had formed slipped from the edges of his eyes. There was a deep stab wound in the center of Lance’s chest, bleeding heavily and soaking through the shirt Lance had pressed against it. Lance gave a low cry at being flipped over but curled into the warmth of Keith’s legs and chest.

Lance’s face was pale and his eyes squinted, the blue barely visible. The flush was gone from his cheeks, and his hands were freezing when Keith touched them. “K-Keith.”

“Hey, Lance. You have to hold out, okay? Pidge and Hunk and Allura and Coran are all gonna get here soon. You can see them. You can… be stupid, and flirt with Allura, and all of the aliens you want to. You just have to hold on. Please, you have to.” Keith knew he was babbling, but the words flooded from his mouth and he pulled Lance farther into his lap, cradling him tightly.

“Hey, this is -” Lance stuttered and he covered his mouth, coughing up blood into his elbow. “This is like our first b-bonding moment.”

Keith’s eyes widened. “You remember that?”

Lance nodded, then let his head fall back, eyes squeezing shut completely. At first, Keith thought it was pain, but he recognized it a minute later as guilt and shame. “I’m sorry,” Lance whispered.

“What? Why? If it’s about the bonding mo-”

“It’s not. It’s not about that, although I’m sorry for lying. It’s just -” Lance swallowed again. “You or - or Shiro, or Allura would’ve held out longer, and I just fell. If I could’ve stood a little longer, then maybe the others would’ve got here, and they would’ve saved us, and I wouldn’t be -” Lance broke off with a harsh cough, blood spattering against his arm and Keith’s chest.

“Don’t you dare continue that sentence, you hear me? You did nothing wrong just because you fell. Those positions are used specifically for torture, they can give you delusions and are designed to cause muscle failure if positioned for so long. It wasn’t your fault. Besides, he broke your toes so it would be harder and more painful.” Keith explained it as best he could using logic, rubbing Lance’s back gently and huddling Lance in his lap.

“Y-yeah, but, Allura and Shiro and you would’ve lasted longer anyways. They wouldn’t have screamed like I did, or cried, or - or -” Lance choked, tears pouring down his face. “Or begged, or anything.”

Keith’s mouth dropped open. “Begged?” He immediately internally facepalmed, that was the opposite of the right reaction to that. 

“I, um, before he - before he stabbed me, I begged. For him not to. I don’t think he understood, my legs really hurt and I think I might have been speaking Spanish, I don’t really… I don’t really remember. Um, Keith, my th-throat really hurts.” Lance gave Keith such a pitiful expression, Keith wanted to cuddle him and bring back his smile.

“You should stop talking, okay? Don’t say anything else. And begging wasn’t wrong, Lance, you were close to hallucinating and going through muscle failure in your legs. He stabbed you. The monster stabbed you because you were strong, so please, don’t think it was your fault. You didn’t do a single thing wrong.”  
Keith wanted to scream. He was terrible at this, terrible at people. Lance fell silent, though, shutting his eyes and cuddling up to Keith. Lance, at this point, was freezing, the only still warm part of him his chest and the blood still streaming steadily from his wound. 

“Keith?” Lance said quietly. 

“Mhm?”

“T-thank y-y-you-” Lance broke off again, starting to cough, hard. Scarlet blood dripped from his lips, spewing onto Keith’s chest and Lance’s arm as he raised his hand to cover his mouth. Great hacking coughs shook his body, and Lance’s eyes widen. “C-C-Can’t-”

“Um, I, fuck! Tilt your head forward, um - shit, shit, shit!” Keith had no idea what to do. Lance was choking on his own blood as it dribbled out of his throat. The best Keith knew to do was stuff for a nosebleed.

Lance wailed, starting to thrash and scream as his oxygen was cut off. Keith started to panic nearly as much, thumping Lance’s back what he hoped wasn’t too hard. It felt weak, but he didn’t know what to do as he watched the panic grow in Lance’s eyes, his cries growing louder and the blood that dripped faster from somewhere inside of him staining his teeth.

The struggles from both of them were forcing more blood out of Lance’s wound, faster and faster, and Keith cursed loudly. Lance was in an animal-like state, trying to claw at his throat, to get it out, out, but it wasn’t working. 

Keith could see Lance’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed repeatedly, sobs momentarily silenced, trying to get it out, out of his throat, because air, he needed air, he couldn’t breathe - but Lance’s struggles were perceptibly weakening. A minute or so later, he wasn’t struggling anymore, just loosely flopping, until his eyes slid back into his head and he gave a last ear-piercing shriek before he fell unconscious.

Keith didn’t know what to do, and it was ringing around in his head as he stared at Lance, who - fuck - was going to fucking die if he didn’t figure out what he was supposed to do here. CPR? No, that’d just push the blood out of the stab wound and he’d bleed out faster.

Keith released a low sob he didn’t realize he’d been holding. He was going to watch Lance choke to death on his own blood. His own fucking blood. And it was going to be Keith’s fault, because he hadn’t found a way to get Lance out, hadn’t found a way to help Lance, didn’t know how to help now either.

Lance was barely breathing, the air stored in his lungs likely gone by now. 

Keith held him tightly, sobbing, and lost in his own panic which had nowhere to go. Something had snapped when Lance stopped moving, and Keith clutched Lance’s body close. He wouldn’t - he couldn’t let him go, let him down. 

He didn’t notice when Lance stopped breathing.

He didn’t notice when Lance’s body started to grow stiff.

He didn’t notice when Lance’s and his own name were screamed, the paladins crowding around him.

He didn’t notice anything until someone whispering quiet, calming words tried to take Lance’s body from him, and he started to scream. 

Screaming.

Like Lance had.

While he choked.

Choking.

Choke.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed, and sorry, I know I'm not really good at endings. Please don't read run, thanks for taking the time to read this!
> 
> I made a discord server!!! https://discord.gg/cZgeYKj if you want to talk about Voltron and stuffs lol


End file.
